Graphics devices, such as graphics chips and graphics cards, are used to assist computers in handling particularly intensive video information, such as 3D (3-dimemsional) video graphics rendering and the like. Graphics cards are designed to accelerate the computationally intensive processes, allowing the computer to display complex video at a pleasing frame rate. A graphics card's performance can be reflected in how well it handles video requests from a computer application, such as in terms of frames in a sequence of video displayed per second, known as the frame rate. The computer graphics industry consistently produces new graphics cards to handle the requests from the computer applications. Software developers create new applications capable of pushing existing computers with graphics cards to their limits. It is not generally known how a designed graphics card will handle requests generated by a new application.
Assumptions are made as to the type of operations that should be processed more efficiently. Graphics cards can then be designed based on those assumptions. However, the actual performance of the graphics card design in handling requests for an application is unknown. The performance of the designed graphics card is determined by having the graphics card execute the requests from the application. Testing graphics card designs require that the graphics card be built. If the graphics card is inadequate, a new card must be designed, built, and tested. Due to this process, substantial time and resources are taken in testing new graphics card designs.
Therefore, a method and/or system for determining the performance of a graphics device prior to the graphics device being manufactured would be useful.